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Erica Dorn is an Assistant Professor of Design and Innovation at Oregon State University. She is the Founder of Suburb Futures, a social design institute that works relationally on policy design and new narrative building to bring about more equitable and living futures in US suburbs. She holds a PhD in Transition Design from Carnegie Mellon School of Design, her dissertation is titled Relational Design for Transitions within US Suburbs. She currently researches relational design practices towards depolarization and belonging in an age of plurality and extremes.
Previously, Erica held senior leadership roles in community economic development, philanthropy, social impact investing, and business & leadership education. Through her social design consultancy, Erica stewarded transformational and participatory community development projects that co-design systems in which the human and more-than-human world can belong and thrive together.
In 2015, she co-founded and served as Managing Director of the Etsy Foundation with a mission to ‘reimagine commerce in ways that build a more lasting and fulfilling world.’ Now known as the Good Work Institute, GWI is a bioregional, worker-run non-profit. She is on the Board of Directors for Third Millennium Alliance, a rainforest conservation organization in Ecuador, an Alfred Landecker Democracy Fellow, and a co-creator of the Spanish bi-lingual podcast, Design in Transition/Diseño en Transición, a podcast about plural notions of world-making towards just futures.
Learn more about Erica’s Landecker Democracy Fellowship project here.
Updated September 2024
More from Erica Dorn
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Suburbs in the United States: Catalysts for Systemic Change
Congratulations to Humanity in Action Senior Fellow Erica Dorn who recently published her dissertation titled, "Suburbs in the United States: Catalysts for Systemic Change."Relational Design for Transitions Within US Suburbs
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Suburb Futures Newsletter
Senior Landecker Fellow Erica Dorn's platform titled Suburb Futures has a new newsletter.
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Suburb Futures has a Podcast!
Suburb Futures, a platform created by Landecker Senior Fellow Erica Dorn, has launched its own podcast!
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Aurora Cultural Celebration
Senior Landecker Fellow Erica Dorn is hosting a special celebration culminating the "Civic Conversations Project" by Suburb Futures, Erica's platform.
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Towards Relational Design Practices
Senior Landecker Fellows Erica Dorn and Tara Dickman co-authored a paper on de-centering design through lessons from community organizing.
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$30,000 Raised for Senior Fellow Giving Campaign 2022
Each year, Humanity in Action launches a Senior Fellow Giving Campaign which aims to gather support from the Senior Fellow community for Humanity in Action's programming. This year, $30,000 was raised!
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Landecker Fellow Erica Dorn - Inclusive Agendas for US Suburbs
Humanity in Action asks Landecker Fellow Erica Dorn to talk about her Action Project.
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Virtual Discussion: Emerging Suburb Futures
Senior Landecker Fellow Erica Dorn's platform Suburb Futures, together with PlacemakingX and PlacemakingUS, organize a virtual discussion titled "Emerging Suburb Futures Virtual Discussion."
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The mobile public spaces of Aurora, Colorado
Landecker Senior Fellow Erica Dorn wrote an Op-Ed for discussing how Aurora, Colorado is using mobile ‘public spaces’ to address the challenges of suburban social service delivery.
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Landecker Senior Fellows Connect in Chicago
Five Landecker Senior Fellows Connect in Chicago for a much anticipated in-person gathering.